I've made my living mostly from patents (royalties, licensing, sales, etc.). It's not easy--you have to be incredibly lucky and persistent--but it can be fun as well as gratifying if your inventions help people. Patent law, however, is arcane and something that you really can't do effectively yourself (i.e.,
pro se) without a lot of experience. About 25 years ago, I had spent $60,000 on patent attorneys for the year and I decided to start drafting and prosecuting my own patent applications. After successfully prosecuting four applications, I gave up prosecution because it was too emotionally draining. Dealing with US patent office (USTPO) and patent examiners is often a stupid game best played by a more objective patent attorney. I still draft my patent applications but I then turn them over to attorneys for prosecution. They'll often improve my specifications and claims before filing them.
Anyway, obtaining patents can be extremely expensive and, statistically, your chances of making money are small. Also, there are a lot of misconceptions about patents, what they're worth and what they're used for. The story of the independent genius who makes a fortune on a revolutionary patent is a myth. Patents are essentially business tools. A patent is just a legal license to sue an infringer, which is a whole other subject. That said, I'd recommend finding a patent attorney with experience in the area of art of your invention (i.e., mechanical, electrical, chemical, biotech, etc.). Most attorneys can draft and prosecute in multiple areas of art. I'd look for either a solo practitioner or an attorney in a small firm because these are likely to be less expensive than those in large firms. You don't want to pay the same rates that GE, IBM, or Hitachi pay. There is no need to use an attorney in your immediate area because all business is usually conducted on the phone and with email.
The best thing you can do to control costs is to write a disclosure of your invention as if it's the specification of a patent (including drawings, if applicable). A great guide for this is
Patent It Yourself, but I would only use it to educate yourself and assist your attorney, not to prosecute a patent application yourself.
Also, it's good to do a bit of patent searching before engaging an attorney. More times that I can count, I've had a great idea that 50 people had before me. You can search the
USPTO and the
EPO online. If you find that your invention has already been patented (i.e., it's not "novel"), you can stop there and save yourself some money. If you decide to proceed, it's likely that your attorney will do (or have a professional patent searcher do) a more comprehensive search using databases not freely available to the public.
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